Mercedes-Benz medium short-bonnet trucks

The medium short-bonnet trucks of Daimler-Benz were produced from 1959 to 1995. They were much shorter than earlier models, and their form followed passenger-car practice, with pontoon wings instead of free-standing fenders and headlights. They were split by permitted gross mass into four series: L 323, L 328, L 322 and L 327. Although demand for tractor units in this weight class was low, Daimler-Benz offered every model from the 7.5 tonne to the 14 tonne L 327, later called L 1413, as a tractor unit from the start; from 1962 there was a special concrete-mixer chassis, the LB. From 1963 the trucks were renamed with figures that followed gross mass and engine output, so the L 322 became the L 1113, an eleven-tonner with a 130 horsepower engine. They were sold nearly everywhere except North America and the socialist countries. Official sales in Germany ended in 1977, and some were still made for export and special uses until 1995.